LETTERS: Opiates and cannabis: No comparison

Editor’s note: The following was addressed to columnist Paul Gauvin and copied to the Patriot.

Patriot Staff

Editor’s note: The following was addressed to columnist Paul Gauvin and copied to the Patriot.

I hope you are well, but I fear you’ve been spending too much time in your other homeland – too much sun, perhaps … I’m writing to heartily disagree with your anti-medicinal marijuana column [March 7].

I hate to tell you, Paul, but the 45-year drug war that was started by Nixon, jacked up by Reagan, and sadly, but robustly continued by Democratic presidents, has failed miserably to keep cannabis or any other drugs out of Cape Cod. The drug war, from the start, has been primarily driven by politics and the money of the prison-industrial complex, such that over the last decade it has became a larger lobbying entity than the teachers unions in California, and other states.

Massachusetts voters overwhelmingly approved the medicinal use of cannabis because the evidence, both anecdotal and scientific, is clear that the use of marijuana is medically efficacious for a number of diseases and ailments – more effective, in many cases, than any other alternative. My god man, if doctors can prescribe morphine, they certainly ought to be able to prescribe marijuana medicinally.

By comparing opiates with cannabis you promote a silly and quite absurd comparison that the 48 percent of Americans who have tried cannabis know is obviously and completely false. Yes, cannabis can be abused, and I certainly don’t believe children should use it for non-medicinal purposes. But the fact is, every credible shred of evidence shows that marijuana is less addictive and dangerous than tobacco and alcohol, and just about every other drug. In addition, there is no known level of toxicity from MJ. People aren’t dying from “pot” overdoses like they are from opiates and alcohol, and even aspirin, for that matter. How can you defend continuing a policy that criminalizes the possession and use of a substance less dangerous than either alcohol or tobacco?

You decry the creation of a new “tax-free” business (medical marijuana), yet are opposed, apparently, to taxing and regulating the sale of cannabis - just like we do with alcohol.

You allude in your column to the recently captured Mexican drug king-pin, but you fail to acknowledge that he was able to do what he did, and make the money that he did, precisely because what he was selling was illegal! When alcohol prohibition was enacted in 1920, “alcohol king-pins” just like that Mexican neighbor of yours cropped up all over America.

Yes, in a sense, medical marijuana is a step toward legalizing cannabis. By seeing how relatively benign cannabis is, and that the state won’t have fallen apart after medical marijuana became legal, citizens will be more likely to support the complete end of marijuana prohibition, replacing it with a policy of appropriate regulation and taxation. I expect the 2016 presidential election in Massachusetts to include a ballot question calling for legalization, and am optimistic it will pass. The tide has turned, Paul, and people are finally seeing the sad, painful, and unproductive results of the drug war. Americans, in ever-growing numbers, are saying enough is enough!

Be well, my friend, and watch out for that hot sun; it can do strange things to one’s ability to think clearly.